Time magazine notes of the above, "Scientists analyzing images from the Mars Opportunity Rover are
flummoxed after a rock mysteriously appeared in the rover’s field of
vision last week." They note, "Some hypothesize the rock may have landed there after being flung
skyward by a meteor that landed nearby, but the leading theory blames
the rover itself for overturning a nearby rock with a quick, jittery
wheel maneuver."

NASA's
Curiosity Mars rover and tracks left by its driving appear in this
portion of a Dec. 11, 2013, observation by the High Resolution Imaging
Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance
Orbiter. The rover is near the lower-left corner of this view.

Two
parallel tracks left by the wheels of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover cross
rugged ground in this portion of a Dec. 11, 2013, observation by the
High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover and its recent tracks from driving in
Gale Crater appear in an image taken by the High Resolution Imaging
Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
on Dec. 11, 2013.Excerpts from the large HiRISE observation are at:http://www.nasa.gov/jpl/mro/curiosity-tracks-pia17755, showing the rover, and http://www.nasa.gov/jpl/mro/curiosity-tracks-pia17754, showing tracks across a landscape in enhanced color.The tracks show where the rover has zigzagged around obstacles on its
route toward the lower slopes of Mount Sharp, its next major
destination.

Does that not blow your mind?

It really underscores how finite and small we are compared to the rest of the universe.

Tuesday, January 21, 2014. Chaos and violence continue, one 'analyst'
spews hatred at Sunnis while another forgets 2007, US Secretary of
Defense Chuck Hagel meets with Iraq's Speaker of Parliament Osama
al-Nujaifi, Nouri finally arrests a Shi'ite militia leader, the arrested
has a cell phone in jail and calls Reuters to threaten Nouri, the
assault on Anbar continues, bad news for Nouri in a new Human Rights
Watch report and a new UN human rights report, and more.

Talk Radio News reports US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel met in DC with Iraq's Speaker of Parliament Osama al-Nujaifi:During the meeting, Hagel provided al-Nujaifi with an update on a U.S.
plan to accelerate the delivery of “critical defense equipment” to those
Iraqi Security Forces conducting missions in the country’s Anbar
Province. In August, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified
Congress of a possible Foreign Military Sale to Iraq of a $339 million
Mobile Troposcatter Radio System and a $2.4 billion Integrated Air
Defense System. The proposed air defense system is expected to provide
Iraqi Air Defense Command with situational awareness of the country’s
airspace.

Readout of Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel's Meeting with Iraqi Council of Representatives Speaker Osama al-Nujaifi

Secretary of Defense Hagel met with Iraqi Council of Representatives Speaker Osama al-Nujaifi today at the Pentagon.

The secretary lauded the Government of Iraq's continued outreach to
local Sunni tribal leaders and officials to evict terrorist fighters
from Fallujah and other parts of western Iraq.

Secretary Hagel provided an update on U.S. efforts to accelerate
delivery of critical defense equipment to resupply the Iraqi Security
Forces conducting missions in Anbar Province. The secretary also
underscored the importance of proceeding with federal Iraqi elections as
scheduled, and encouraged the Government of Iraq's efforts to implement
local and national political initiatives.

The secretary concluded the meeting by reaffirming the steadfastness of
the U.S-Iraq bilateral relationship and the U.S. commitment to helping
the Iraqi government ensure the safety and security of all Iraqi people.

UPI reports,
"Iraq was the only member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting
Countries to post a decline in oil production last month, the IEA said
Tuesday." Nouri al-Maliki's Iraq stands out -- just never in a good
way. Today the prime minister and chief thug of Iraq wanted to take
bows again. AP notes
that Nouri's government issued a declaration, "The justice ministry
carried out the executions of 26 (men) convicted of crimes related to
terrorism on Sunday." CNN adds,
"One of those executed was Adel al-Mashhadani, a militia leader in
Baghdad who was "famous for sectarian crimes," the statement said. He
was a member of the Awakening, the Sunni tribal fighting force who
fought alongside the United States against al Qaeda militants." The
announcement of the executions come one day after UNAMI issued their
[PDF format warning] latest human rights report on Iraq which included:

16.
Declare a moratorium on the use of the death penalty in accordance with UN General Assembly
resolutions 62/149 (2007), 63/168 (2008), 65/206 (2010) and 67/176( 2012)
; revie
w the criminal code
and the criminal procedure code with a view to abolishing the death penalty;
and consider acceding to
the Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR aimed at abolishing the death penalty; 17.
Implement
international standards that provide safeg
uards of the rights of those facing the death
penalty
,
as set out in the annex to Economic and Social Council resolution 1984/50 of 25 May 1984
,
until the death penalty is abolished in Iraq.

Clearly, Nouri's not listening to the United Nations.

Today Human Rights Watch issued World Report 2014which notes 2012 saw Nouri's government execute at least 129 people while 2013 saw the number increase to 151. BBC News notes today's executions come after "m the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights for an immediate halt to executions in Iraq. A spokesman for Navi Pillay said in October large-scale killings were 'obscene and inhumane'."

Of course, that's not Nouri's fault. Not in his mind anyway. Nothing is never his fault, in his mind.

The
Iraqi government has raised the stakes yet again in its brinksmanship
with Kurdistan—unable so far to halt the Kurds’s headlong push as an
independent oil exporter, Baghdad has prepared a 2014 budget that entirely cuts off the northern region.

Baghdad’s move on Jan. 15 is a response to Kurdish plans to sell their
first piped oil at the end of this month at Turkey’s Mediterranean port
of Ceyhan, the first stage in an apparent strategy for wholesale
economic independence from Iraq proper. With it, Iraqi prime minister
Nouri al-Maliki raises the temperature not only on the Kurds, but also
the foreign oil companies on which Kurdistan is relying—ExxonMobil,
Chevron, France’s Total, Gazprom and a group of wildcatters.

Maliki
said there will be no restoration of the Kurds’s $12 billion-a-year
budget allocation until they produce 400,000 barrels of oil a day—worth
about $14.6 billion a year at today’s prices. But the oil companies’
current plans do not yield that scale of production until well into next
year. So to stave off economic mayhem this year, the Kurds will be
lobbying both Maliki to see reason and the oil companies to up their
game.

UPI notes, "Genel Energy, led by former BP boss Tony Hayward, said Wednesday it
expects oil from a pipeline in the Kurdish north of Iraq to be exported
from Turkey soon."

Nouri created that crisis. On Sunday, a Kurdish delegation had to go to Baghdad.Aswat al-Iraq reported they were there to discuss the budget and the oil issue. On the same day,Aswat al-Iraq quoted KRG President Massoud Barzani stating, "Kurds will not recede any of their rights any form." Rudaw reported:Meetings
led by Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Prime Minister Nechirvan
Barzani in Baghdad to resolve oil and budget rows ended inconclusively
on Sunday, with a decision to continue the talks at a later date.Following the closed-door meetings, Maliki softened his stance over
threats to cut off the Kurdistan Region from the federal budget, unless
there was agreement over revenues from the oil exports to Turkey."I have not said I would cut the KRG's share of
the budget. I said there should be a language of understanding to solve
the issues between Baghdad and Erbil," Maliki told Rudaw.

It wasn't, you understand, Nouri's fault. It's his Cabinet, most Sunnis
(all but Saleh al-Mutlaq) long ago began boycotting sessions. He
controls the Cabinet, he controls what gets forwarded to Parliament but
it wasn't his fault.

It was some Phantom head of the Cabinet -- a head of it that no one knew existed or had ever heard of.

A sure sign of a failure in a leader is someone who can't admit mistakes and has to pretend he or she is perfect.

And Nouri is so far from perfect. Rudaw reports on the conclusions of the British All Parliamentary Group:

The
cat and mouse game between Erbil and Baghdad is as old as Iraq itself.
The APPG agrees with Kurdish leaders that Baghdad should nurture and
celebrate the social and economic achievements of the Region and see it
as the future for the whole country. It seems possible that the
autonomous region and the federal government can negotiate a revenue
sharing law that accompanies the new pipelines between the Kurdistan
Region and Turkey.The rapprochement with Turkey has concerned some in Baghdad and in
America who fear that economic independence will become political
independence and that Iraq will disintegrate. Members of the APPG accept
that a unified Iraq should work for all its component parts through
what President Barzani described to us as "partnership and
power-sharing."The Kurds told the APPG that the current revenue-sharing agreement
should give them 17% of the national budget but that they usually
receive about 10% and not consistently. The crucial need is for a robust
and reliable revenue-sharing law.

But Nouri will always have fools and tools who applaud him. Jamie
Tarabay has an idiotic article at Al Jazeera America entitled "Will daily bombings bring Iraq to a new tipping point?"
I'm sorry, when did daily bombs not take place. What world is Taraby
living in where daily bombings are something recent to Iraq? She writes
like someone seeking a fatwa and if that seems harsh, read this 2013 piece by Tarabay -- especially this section:

De-Baathification, adopted
in 2003 to weed out Saddam Hussein-era officials from positions of
power, is still law. It has been employed by the Maliki government to
isolate, arrest or oust political threats and opponents.The security forces remain under the thumb of Shia politicians,
including those from Maliki’s Dawa party, but also members of the Badr
brigade — the former military wing of the Islamic Supreme Council of
Iraq, which ran against
Maliki's Dawa Party in the last parliamentary election, in 2010.
Despite repeated appeals by the U.S. to bring more Sunnis into the
ranks, the Interior Ministry, which controls the country's security
forces, remains a Shia bastion. Sunnis guarding the few remaining Sunni
enclaves in Baghdad in makeshift units called the Sons of Iraq continue to be shut out of joining.Maliki wants the U.S. to provide Iraq with Apache attack helicopters and drones and recently purchased Korean fighter jets. His critics claim he intends to use them against their communities.

That's just last month. Now read her crap today, her anti-Sunni screed
-- "long-suffering Shia majority," "many Sunnis consider them [Shi'ites]
to be heretics and apostates," "narrative reinforces the calls by Shia
religious leaders for calm and
fortitude, but the goal of the Al-Qaeda elements is to provoke the Shia
to abandon such restraint and plunge" and it just goes on and on. She
calls the Sunnis everything but dogs and largely conflates all Sunnis as
fighters and/or al Qaeda. I don't understand how such hateful and
ignorant writing can be produced to begin with. But it's especially
shocking when compared to her past articles -- recent, like last month,
or her work at NPR (or AP before that) -- which had balance and didn't
spew hate towards any sect.

As she vents her hate and stupidity, let's return to Human Rights Watch's new report World Report 2014 to note some reality:

The government responded to largely peaceful demonstrations with
violence and to worsening security with draconian counterterrorism
measures. Borders controlled by Iraq's central government remained
closed to Syrians fleeing civil war, while as of November, nearly
206,600 Syrians fled to the Kurdistan Regional Government
(KRG)-controlled area. In December 2012, thousands of Iraqis took part in demonstrations in
mostly Sunni areas, demanding reform of the Anti-Terrorism Law and the
release of illegaly held detainees. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki
announced in January 2013 that he had created special committees to
oversee reforms, including freeing prisoners and limiting courts' use of
secret informant testimony. At time of writing, there was little
indication that the government had implemented reforms. Security forces
instead used violence against protesters, culminating in an attack on a
demonstration in Hawija in April, which killed 51 protesters.
Authorities failed to hold anyone accountable. The government responded to increasing unrest with mass arrest
campaigns in Sunni regions, targeting ordinary civilians and prominent
activists and politicians under the 2005 Anti-Terrorism Law. Security
forces and government supporters harassed journalists and media
organizations critical of the authorities. Iraq's security forces abused detainees with impunity. Throughout
the year, detainees reported prolonged detentions without a judicial
hearing and torture during interrogation. In February, Deputy Prime
Minister Hussein al-Shahristani told Human Rights Watch that security
forces frequently carred out mass arrests without arrest warrants.
Courts continued to rely on secret informant testimony and coerced
confessions to issue arrest warrants and convictions. On May 11,
villagers south of Mosul found the bodies of four men and a 15-year-old
boy, which bore multiple gun shot wounds. Witnesses had last seen them
alive on May 3 in the custody of the federal police 3rd Division, but at
time of writing, the government had not announced any investigation
into the deaths.

Jamie Tarabay seems to have missed or forgotten all of that. She and Kirk Sowell both need to hop on a pair of ponies. As Cass Elliot, Denny Doherty, John and Michelle Phillips (the Mamas and the Papas) sing in "Too Late" (first appears on The Papas & the Mamas):Get on your pony and rideGet on your pony and rideNo one to catch up to youIf you try.Get on your pony and rideGet on your pony and rideNo one to catch up to youIf you try.No one to catch up to you,If you try -- 'cause I've tried.'Cause when the mind that once was open shutsAnd you knock on the door, nobody answers anymoreWhen the love and trust has turned to dustWhen the mind that once was open shutsWhen you knock on the door, nobody answers anymoreWhen the love and trust has turned to dust

Sunday, Kirk H. Sowell (Foreign Policy) tries his hand at analysis and he got this part right:He [Nouri] wished Christians a Merry Christmas, extended to "all
Muslims, who believe in Jesus the Messiah, messenger of humanity and peace."
Holiday greetings out of the way, the prime minister moved on to what he really
wanted to address. He spoke of ongoing counter-terrorist operations, and the
need for tribal support. Maliki then talked about "what is referred to as the
‘sit-in protest,' which has become a base for the leaders of al Qaeda,"
repeating the phrase twice. This was a reference to the protest site near
Ramadi, the symbolic center of the mainstream Sunni protest movement countrywide.
Maliki went on,
saying "this we know because they have openly appeared on the podium, declaring
we are al Qaeda, and we cut off heads. They have openly raised the banner of al
Qaeda at the podium, and soon we will air the confessions" of terrorists
admitting they are based at the site. "Our intelligence from aerial and human
sources inside the site, confirm the presence of both Iraqi and foreign al Qaeda
leaders. The provincial government has also confirmed that there are 36 al
Qaeda leaders based there. So now there is a popular demand that the site be
shut down."
With national
elections set for April, Maliki's Christmas speech, a show trial-like airing of
"confessions" by detainees on state television, and a wide-ranging media
campaign in the days that followed were part of an effort to tie Ramadi protests
to al Qaeda. The case was largely wrong, and to an extent made in bad faith.
This and the December 30, 2013 bulldozing of the Ramadi encampment were among
several actions that led to the total breakdown in security in Anbar province at
year's end and exacerbated the security crisis there.

He was less sturdy on other points -- such as this:

The movement never
had a serious chance of achieving its stated goals. It stated its demands absolutely,
and was too sweeping, demanding a total abolition of de-Baathification and
repeal of the death penalty for terrorism, which no Shiite prime minister would
accept.

de-Ba'athification is something no Shi'ite prime minister would accept?

I'm confused how he can argue "no Shi'ite prime minister would accept"
that. Did he do a survey of potential Shi'ite prime ministers?

I find it hard to believe Sowell did that. I find it even harder to believe that Sowell's never seen this:

Reversal of de-Baathification laws. The Iraqi
parliament passed the Justice and Accountability Law on January 12,
2008, clearing the way for an estimated thirty-thousand low-ranking
ex-Baathists to return to public life. The law also allowed some party
members to collect pensions. But some Sunnis argue the law has made
matters worse for them by opening the door to federal prosecution,
barring top-ranking officials from regaining jobs, and restricting
former Saddam security forces from reintegration. The drive to rescind
de-Baathification laws was part of a larger effort to make
constitutional concessions to minority groups like Sunni Arabs.

That's what the Sunni protesters have been calling for since the ongoing protests kicked off on December 21st -- they've been calling for more than that, but with regards to de-Ba'athification, that's what they're calling for.

No Shi'ite prime minister would agree to that?

Is Nouri al-Maliki no longer Shi'ite and/or no longer prime minister?

He was prime minister in 2007 and he agreed to the quoted passage above which is part of the White House benchmarks.
Background, Democrats swept the 2006 mid-term elections in the US.
Prior to the elections, they controlled no house of Congress. They
promised if voters would put them in charge of one house of Congress,
they'd end the Iraq War. The voters did better than that, they voted
them in charge of both houses of Congress. As the new Congress
was sworn in back in January of 2007, Bully Boy Bush knew he had to make
immediate changes. Gone was Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld
(Robert Gates replaced him in January of 2007) and a series of White
House benchmarks was created to demonstrate success -- in order to
continue Congressional funding.

The Council on Foreign Relations has the benchmarks here.
Nouri agreed to these benchmarks. It's a failure on the part of the
Obama administration that they've given billions to Iraq (and continue
to) and tons of weapons and have not demanded that Nouri implement these
benchmarks he agreed to and signed off on.

At his press conference
this morning, President Bush, seeing the glass half full, pronounced
the report "a cause for optimism"—and for staying on course.

Yet a close look at the 25-page report reveals a far more dismal
picture and a deliberately distorted assessment. The eight instances of
"satisfactory" progress are not at all satisfactory by any reasonable
measure—or, in some cases, they indicate a purely procedural advance.
The eight "unsatisfactory" categories concern the central issues of
Iraqi politics—the disputes that must be resolved if Iraq is to be a
viable state and if the U.S. mission is to have the slightest chance of
success.

Here are the benchmarks at which, even the White House acknowledges, the Iraqi government has not made satisfactory progress:

Legislation on de-Baathification reform

Legislation to ensure equitable distribution of oil revenue without regard to sect or ethnicity

Setting up provincial elections

Establishing a strong militia-disarmament program

Allowing Iraqi commanders to pursue militias without political interference

Ensuring that the Iraqi army and police enforce the law evenhandedly

Increasing the number of Iraqi security forces capable of operating independently (here, the number has actually gone down)

Ensuring
that Iraq's political authorities are not undermining or making false
accusations against members of Iraqi security forces

The status of former Baathists, distribution of oil revenue, local
elections, disarming militias, sectarianism within the police, the
legitimacy of the national army—these are the main issues grinding the
parliament to a standstill, aggravating ethnic conflict, and forcing
millions of Iraqis to flee the country. These are the issues that the
Iraqi political leaders are supposed to be resolving while American
troops fight and die to make Baghdad secure.

When you realize that even the Bully Boy Bush administration knew
de-Ba'athifcation -- which they started -- had to end for Iraq to come
together as a country, the demand of the protesters -- for the same
thing -- becomes much less 'out there' than Sowell attempted to play it
in his Sunday episode.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
today called on Iraq’s political leaders to enter inclusive talks in the
face of rising conflict and warned that failure to make progress in
Israeli-Palestinian peace talks could spark a new outbreak of violence.
“Today, I reiterate my message to Iraqi political leaders to fulfil
their responsibilities to ensure inclusive dialogue, social cohesion,
and concrete political progress,” he told
the United Nations Security Council at the start of the body’s regular
debate on the situation in the Middle East following his return from a
visit to the region.
“The country is again facing serious threats to its stability,” he said.
Mr. Ban, who visited Iraq ahead of a stop in Kuwait were he chaired a
humanitarian donors’ conference for Syria, which generated some $2.4
billion in pledges, said he discussed his concerns with many Iraqi
leaders and urged all sides to remain committed to political dialogue
and uphold respect for the rule of law and human rights.
“I was reassured by their pledge to hold parliamentary elections as
scheduled on 30 April,” he added. “Today, I reiterate my message to
Iraqi political leaders to fulfil their responsibilities to ensure
inclusive dialogue, social cohesion, and concrete political progress.”

Security source announced on Tuesday the continuation of the
displacement of hundreds of families in several neighborhoods of
Fallujah as a result of the shelling of the city by the army. A
security source in Anbar, told / NINA / that hundreds of families fled
the city of Fallujah, because of the artillery intense shelling that led
to the killing and wounding of many civilians.

RAO: In terms of how the government is responding though, it varies
depending on the area. In Baghdad, they have locked out a lot of areas.
They've sort of increased checkpoints and they've sort of tighten those
checkpoints. But in Anbar, the response have been a combination of the
deploying of U.S.- supplied Hellfire missiles and also clashes in some
towns in between Ramadi and Fallujah, where the Iraqi army and Iraqi
police, allied tribal fighters are all looking to take back territory
that the government lost about three weeks ago.INSKEEP: Let's
remember here Anbar. Of course, that's the Sunni-dominated province west
of Baghdad. You're saying that's where some of the heaviest fighting is
taking place. So is this sectarian violence Sunni versus Shia?RAO:
Well, it might be slightly over-generalizing it to say it's sectarian.
But there is a perception of sectarianism, in that the Iraqis security
forces are perceived in Sunni areas to be a Shia force, especially some
of the more elite fighting units. And, of course, Anbar, as you say, is a
predominantly Sunni province - so it takes on that color. That is
certainly part of the perception.

Suadad al-Salhy (Reuters) reports
Nouri finally arrested a Shi'ite militia leader and he's from Iran.
Strange, the show confessions last Friday were about Saudi Arabia --
the country Nouri denounced on Sunday. Again, this one is Shi'ite and
he's from Iran. And he got a cellphone and jail and dialed Reuters:A Shi’ite militia leader arrested in Iraq as said leaders of Prime
Minister Nouri Al-Maliki’s political bloc will be killed unless he is
released within 24 hours.Wathiq Al-Battat, speaking to Reuters on a mobile phone he said had been
given him by a sympathetic prison guard, said he was being held without
charge in solitary confinement in a small, cold cell, with no access to
lawyers or his family.Battat was detained in Baghdad on Jan. 2, six weeks after his
Iranian-backed Al-Mukhtar Army fired six mortar bombs from southern Iraq
into a neighboring country, causing no casualties.

Yesterday's snapshot noted the attempted citizen's arrest of War Criminal and former UK Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. George Monbiot (Guardian) explains today:Nothing changes without talk; nothing changes through talk alone.
Petitions and debates and social media campaigns and even, sometimes,
articles in newspapers are essential campaigning tools but, without
action, they seldom amount to anything but catharsis. Without risk,
there is no inspiration. Without demonstrations of what change looks
like, the public imagination fails.This is why I set up the Arrest Blair website. Everywhere I went, I met people who were furious that Tony Blair
should have got away with what, under international law, appears to be
clearly defined as mass murder. The crime of aggression ("planning,
preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression) was described
by the Nuremberg Tribunal as "the supreme international crime differing
only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole".[. . .]Arrest Blair collects donations and uses them to build a bounty pot.
We pay out a quarter of the money that's in the pot when a successful
claim is made. Four people have received the bounty so far, in each case
amid a blaze of publicity for an issue that is otherwise largely
forgotten.Twiggy Garcia's attempt last Friday
was performed with a certain panache. While Garcia held his shoulder,
Blair attempted his long-polished trick of changing the subject:
"Shouldn't you be worried about Syria?" Garcia responded that he could
"only address things that are within my grasp at any one time". It'll
take a day or two to formalise the decision, but his claim seems to meet
the criteria.Once more, what Blair did in Iraq is in the news,
11 years after the event, and the clamour to ensure that such crimes
become unthinkable in future has risen again. That is a small but
significant contribution to peace.

About Me

I'm a black working mother. I love to laugh and between work and raising kids, I need a good laugh. I'm also a community member of The Common Ills. Shout outs to any Common Ills community members stopping by. Big shout out to C.I. for all the help getting this started. I am not married to Thomas Friedman, credit me with better taste, please. This site is a parody.